The existence of an ocean water dish is a source of great
controversy in the world of hermit crab owners. Why the
importance of this type of water is rarely debated, it see ms
that the products used in the creation of Ocean Water are
the source of much debate. Just as all hermit crab owners
know not to use table salt for their crabs, there are two
types of salt available for aquarium use. Fresh Saltwater
as well as Ocean Water Salt, which although made of the
same components have vastly different role within the world
of fish keeping.
A saltwater dish is offered as a means for
hermit crabs in captivity to gain access to the ocean with
in the habitat. In the wild, a hermit crab would normally
crawl down to the sea side to get sea water to help balance
the ph/ion levels within their shells. However, in the man-created
environment within the habitat, this cannot happen unless
a human is providing this type of water. The product used
to create this water is of critical importance for this
reason, plus in case of injury, salt water is also naturally
defecting that will assist in healing of wounds. Hermit
Crabs have been known to be seen soaking an injured claw
within the salt water pond. Also, molts tend to go a better
in the habitats where salt water is readily available.
In order to understand the difference in the
product lines, we need to see what Natural Sea Water (NSW)
is composed of. The first ingredient is salt of course.
However, it also contains about 70 other trace chemicals
within it. So while the primary ingredient is in fact common
salt (NaCl) there is also several other elements which are
key to the composition of Ocean Water. The major components
in addition to Chlorine and Sodium are Magnesium, Sulfur/Sulphur,
Calcium, and Potassium. Also, common minor components are
Bicarbonate, Bromine, Strontium and Silicon. These are considered
to be essential to the creation of artificial salt water.
This is in addition to other elements, which are in lower
amount but found in NSW, such as Chromium, Cobalt, Copper,
Fluorine/Fluoride, Iodine/Iodide, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum,
Nickel, Phosphorus/Phosphate, Selenium, Tin, Vanadium and
Zinc. Also it is important to note that in the creation
of artificial ocean water mixes also tend to be over in
Nitrogen/Hydrogen, Nitrate-Nitrogen, Phosphorus as well
as Silcon. So offering just one of these elements, such
as just the salt, is not truly providing a Salt Water, for
several ingredients are missing from the equation.
Now, this is not to say that the salinity
level found around the world is stable. Factors such as
weather, heat, and location are also factors in the composition
of salt water. The Dead Sea is in fact the saltiest body
of water in the world. Water located around the equator
is also saltier than that which is found in the artic. While
this could be important to different varieties of Hermit
Crabs, that is a subject for more research to find out which
products mimic different water conditions world wide.
Freshwater Salt is designed to primarily be
a treatment of illness in fish. Specifically, freshwater
fish can tolerate low slowly introduced salt in their water.
Natural Freshwater does contain salt, but compared to the
amounts found in NSW water, the volume of this is significantly
lower. Products designed with only this purpose in mind,
tend to lack the other elements found in Sea Water. The
same is true for cooking salt made from evaporated ocean
water. For while the salt is sea salt, it is lacking the
other components that make ocean water what it is.
Ocean Water salts, however, provide not only
the salt needed but the other components as well. In fact,
the label Ocean Water mixes might be a better term for these
products because of the fact that they are not just containing
one part of the water, but a variety of components that
are found in NSW. For the Aquarist who keeps salt water
tanks, this is of critical importance to their pets. Therefore,
they tend to go with mixes that are more than just salt.
In trying to offer Hermit Crabs ocean ponds, it is important
that a mix with true composition closest to NSW is used
which is why ocean water salt is preferred over Freshwater
Salt.
Websites used to provide information in this
article are:
http://www.gpc.peachnet.edu/~pgore/Earth&Space/salinity.html
http://www.soc.soton.ac.uk/CHD/classroom@sea/general_science/salty_oceans.html
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/seasaltmixes/l/aa012003a.htm
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